Riot in Cincinnati by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 3, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 14.

Riot in Cincinnati.

By Editor

NEVER in the history of our country has a greater calamity befallen any city than has come upon Cincinnati. A riot of unprecedented proportions has been raging there. Reports to the morning of March 30 say about 200 have been killed; the courthouse was on fire; the loss of the buildings and the records will be very great. The troops were ordered to the city from various parts of the State, and what the end will be it is impossible to tell.

And what is all this for? what has caused it? The inefficiency of the courts to punish crime has so outraged the feelings of the people that they became enraged. It is a dearly-bought lesson; but it is only what could be expected. We have before spoken of a certain class of "criminal lawyers" who take delight, even by methods the most questionable, in clearing the worst characters from the demands of justice, and who make it easy to sin without punishment. They are indeed criminal lawyers in an unenviable sense. If we are to have order, our courts should make the laws respected. As long as quibbles and technicalities are successfully used to overthrow justice, so long may we expect "vigilance committees" and mobs to do a deadly work. We do not countenance lynch law or mob rule; it is blind and unreasoning. But who can measure the responsibility of those who call it into action? Had criminals received their just due in Cincinnati this terrible loss of life and treasure might have been spared, and the fair name of a beautiful city saved from disgrace. It is a terrible state of things, and who can tell where next the scourge may come?

Who would not pray for the peaceable reign of the Lord Jesus? But, alas, for evil doers; for even that reign brings no peace to the wicked. "For evil doers shall be cut off." Our Lord is a God of justice, who "will by no means clear the guilty."

In the case in Cincinnati no part of the court is to be blamed but the jury, as the judge denounced the verdict as an outrage. Juries ought to be made responsible for their actions, and no longer let their wrong-doing fall on the heads of the innocent.